Abstract
An experimental study was performed on heat transfer to water drops released successively from a single nozzle into a medium of a denser silicone oil confined by a pair of vertically-oriented parallel-plate electrodes. A steady electric field applied across the electrodes provides smaller drops and, if the strength of the field is high enough, makes the drops bounce back and forth between the electrodes during their rise in the medium. The heat transfer efficiency at any height above the nozzle increases sharply as the field strength increases, causing a reduction in the size of drops and then the inception of their bouncing motion. Further increase in the field strength promotes mutual coalescence of drops just after their release from the nozzle, resulting in a significant substraction of an increasing effect of the bouncing motion. Consequently, the heat transfer efficiency levels off as the field strength exceeds a certain critical level. An attempt is made to evaluate the effects of drop size reduction and of the bouncing motion separately.
